Hybrid wireless sensor network for building energy management systems based on the 2.4 GHz and 400 MHz bands

In this paper, a hybrid wireless sensor network (WSN) system is considered and implemented for the building energy management systems. Characteristics of the radios, which are based on the 2.4 GHz and 400 MHz bands, respectively, are analyzed for the building environments. For battery-operated portable sensors, narrow-bandwidth radios of the 400 MHz band are employed in a star connection between their parent nodes. Between the parent nodes, a mesh network is constructed for an efficient and fast data transmission based on the wide-bandwidth radios of the 2.4 GHz band. The hybrid WSN system is implemented and tested for a building environment and provides a reliable wireless communication link for gathering sensing data.